Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: : Alarm Sounds for Forest Fires

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

GUATEMALA CITY, Mar 7 2005 (IPS) - Guatemalan officials have issued a yellow alert due to the intensity of the 67 forest fires recorded during 50 days so far this year and which have destroyed 500 hectares of forest. The government is working with Canada to send two tanker aircraft to put out the blazes, presidential spokesman Eduardo González told Tierramérica. Already taking action is a Bell helicopter on loan from the Honduran air force.

Guatemala and Mexico are also coordinating information about fires reported along their shared 960-km border.

From 1998 to Feb. 17 of this year, 1,686 fires consumed 8,853 square miles of forest, or 8.1 percent of Guatemalan territory, according to the National System to Prevent and Control Forest Fires.

The worst fires in the country's history took place in 1998, when 498 blazes devastated 678,000 hectares.